In the News August 4th

Thursdays News at a glance:

Drafting A Birmingham Smokefree Streets Consultation Response – Smoking rate hits low in England – Terry Barnes – Kiwis have got it right on vaping – Member States that permit cross-border distance sales – Poland: The future of vaping gets darker – How The New E-Cig Rules Hurt Americans – How many Americans will die because of the FDA? – General process for amending the Poisons Standard: Nicotine – Old controls no good for new vaping phenomenon – New Zealand Moves to Relax Its Laws – Nicotine Science and Policy Daily Digest – Thursday, 4 August 2016

Dick Puddlecote

Regular readers will remember that we often get involved in public sectorconsultations on issues we discuss on these pages. We haven’t done one of these for a while but there is a consultation out now for such a crassly stupid idea that it’d be rude not to have your say….

Cancer Research UK

The number of people smoking in England has hit the lowest levels on record, according to Public Health England (PHE) figures. In 2015, smoking levels decreased to 16.9% in England, PHE’s Annual Population Survey (APS) shows. This is down from 17.8% in 2014.

Alison Cox, Cancer Research UK’s director of prevention, said: “Smoking is still the biggest preventable cause of cancer, so it’s good to see that smoking rates are at a record low.

Terry Barnes – Catallaxy Files

While nanny state McCarthyists of public health rule the roost in Australian harm reduction, thank heavens our Kiwi cousins across the Dutch have their heads sensibly screwed on.

This week, >the New Zealand government announced it will be legislating to make nicotine-containing vaping devices legally available to New Zealand’s half a million smokers. Furthermore, these devices will be sold as retail products to over 18s in direct competition with cigarettes, not as prescription-only, highly-restricted therapeutic products.

Julien Sellier – Vaping Post

The future of vaping becomes darker in Poland. The transposition of the TPD into national tobacco regulation has been stricter than the regular EU’s recommendations. This strictness may impact one of the biggest vaping market in Europe.

Jared Meyer – The Federalist

It is disheartening to see that the media’s near-exclusive focus while covering the Food and Drug Administration’s recent tobacco “deeming regs” has been on the provision that restricts e-cigarette sales to minors.

Because of the FDA’s vaping rule? – Michelle Minton

E-cigarettes could lead to a 21 percent decline in deaths from smoking-related diseases for people born after 1997, according to a study published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research. Even accounting for harms people might suffer from vaping who would have otherwise not smoked at all, the researchers found a net public health gain from the presence of e-cigarettes. So why is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration putting up big regulatory barriers for e-cigarettes starting in August?

Kaleigh Rogers – Motherboard

Nobody around the world really knows what to do about vaping. Even as new strict vaping regulations trickle into effect in the US, New Zealand’s government is seriously considering un-banning the devices, which have been effectively illegal in the country since they first emerged more than a decade ago.

Evidence from a scientist is due to be presented next month in a case in which an alleged drink driver is attempting to prove alcohol in an e-cigarette put him over the limit, a court was told on Thursday.

The case is believed to be one of the first of its kind in Northern Ireland and a judge says he is looking forward to hearing the details.